BattleTech: Blood Rage (Fortunes of War Novella, #2): BattleTech Novella

By Craig A. Reed, Jr.

VENGEANCE SHALL BE THEIRS…

Three years after the massacre of their families on Bromhead, the hard-bitten mercenary unit Hansen's Roughriders have already exacted revenge against Taurian Concordant forces on the planet Lindsay. But that is only the beginning.

When the Second Taurian Lancers—the unit responsible for the massacre—lands on Midale to conduct a supply raid, they run into Colonel Wolfgang Hansen and the entire Roughriders force—all out for blood. And underestimating the Roughriders may be the last mistake the Lancers make.

Amid the savage fighting, a Federated Suns liaison officer uncovers evidence of a third party's involvement in the slaughter—and who may have been behind it. But will he be able to gather the necessary evidence—and eyewitnesses—before the rampaging Roughriders destroy everything in their path?

(NOTE: This is the same novella that was distributed to the BattleTech Mercenaries Kickstarter campaign. If you received this story through the campaign, you do not need to buy it here.)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs
• Release date: Jan 25, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224789177

Book preview

Battletech: Blood Rage

BATTLETECH: BLOOD RAGE

FORTUNES OF WAR, #2

CRAIG A. REED, JR.

CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Notable BattleMechs

Battletech Glossary

BattleTech Eras

The BattleTech Fiction Series

CHAPTER

ONE

TISDALE

WEST MOSER

MIDALE

FEDERATED SUNS

10 FEBRUARY 3070

What the hell did I do to deserve this? Aleksander Knightburg thought as he dropped into his office chair, leaned back, and rubbed his eyes.

Despite his having the office for two years, there wasn’t much personality to it. A couple of pictures—one in his dress uniform, another of his family—and a sword on a plaque were the only personal items in the room. The rest—desk, chairs, bookcases, the fake plant in the corner—were all Armed Forces of the Federated Suns-issued.

Alek was tall, lean, and handsome—the type of man women flocked to—able to hold his own in conversations and sports, and his family was affluent enough to have a barony on the east coast of Remagen’s Erpel continent. By all rights, he should be in line for a ’Mech battalion command slot in one of the Davion Guards’ regimental combat teams.

But new orders had been cut by someone way up the chain of command, and instead of preparing for war, he was assigned to babysit a merc unit. Who had he offended to be sent out here to the edge of Federated Suns space as a liaison officer?

Granted, this wasn’t any two-bit merc outfit he’d been assigned to. Hansen’s Roughriders had a well-known reputation for fighting hard and partying even harder. But in the two years he had been here, he found every Roughrider, from Hansen on down, was gripped by anger and grief simmering under a veneer of professionalism.

Alek knew why: anyone who watched the news was aware of the Bromhead Massacre three years ago. The Taurians slaughtering thousands of the Roughriders’ dependents had been hard to watch. The Roughriders had responded by jumping to the recently Taurian-occupied Lindsay and annihilating both the Pleiades Lancers and the Taurian Defense Force garrison. Now they were on Midale, still angry and grieving, and it was Alek’s job to ride herd on them. Not a promising career assignment.

A knock at the door made him look up. Enter.

The door opened, and his civilian secretary stuck her head in. Captain Lorimer’s here to see you, sir.

Alek sighed. Send him in.

She vanished, and after a few seconds, a thin man in an Armed Forces of the Federated Suns captain’s uniform walked into the office. His face was long and oval, with close-set eyes and short, dark hair. Captain Knightburg, he said in a soft, even tone.

Alek waved to a chair in front of his desk. Carter.

Carter Lorimer strode over and sat. You look like hell.

"I feel like I’m in hell," Alek replied.

Carter nodded. Could be somewhere worse.

Alek glared at him. Name one place where I would feel more useless than here.

Depends on how you want it, Carter replied. Alphabetically, or by region?

Alek glared at the Department of Military Intelligence team leader. DMI was the intelligence arm of the AFFS. All military units deployed by the Federated Suns, whether AFFS or mercenary, had a DMI team assigned to them to evaluate intel for the unit. Carter had been with the Roughriders far longer than Alek, who relied on the DMI officer’s knowledge of the Roughriders to keep him in tune with them.

Carter, Alek said. Let me be blunt. Hansen tolerates me, the rest of the officers avoid me, and I don’t think the rest of the unit even knows who I am, despite meeting with them regularly. How am I supposed to ride herd on these people if they ignore me?

They are ignoring you right now because you and they have nothing in common.

Didn’t Sanders have the same problem?

Carter shook his head. No, he had too much in common with them. He also lost his entire family on Bromhead, and in the end he couldn’t handle it. He shot himself in this very office. Hansen and the rest of the Roughriders are channeling all their grief into anger. The best way to describe their mood is, ‘If it’s Taurian, it’s dead.’ You read the report on Dedrickson’s Devils?

Alek frowned. Yes. I’m surprised any of them survived.

Carter nodded. They spent years masquerading as Taurian or Federated Suns units, raiding both sides of the border. Then they made the mistake of showing up on Midale, masquerading as the Taurian Guards. He shook his head. Idiots.

The report said the Roughriders let a third of them get away.

Carter snorted. As soon as the Roughriders discovered ‘Taurians’ were on-planet, they charged out and shattered the Devils like a sledgehammer through plate glass. The only reason any of Dedrickson’s people survived is because my field teams found several of their MechWarriors alive, and they willingly revealed the deception. Hansen called off the pursuit after I convinced him the Devils weren’t Taurians.

Any prisoners? The report was vague about that.

A half dozen, and only because DMI and the militia got to them before the Roughriders did. The rest… Carter sighed. The Roughriders weren’t looking for prisoners.

They didn’t⁠—

I have no evidence. There was a higher-than-average number of ’Mech cockpits that were shot out, but there’s no way of telling without launching a massive investigation, and we don’t have the resources or the latitude to do so.

Alek sighed. So you’re saying the Roughriders are in a murderous mood.

Carter spread his hands apart. Do you blame them? I can count the number of Roughriders who didn’t lose family in the massacre on my hands, still have fingers left over, and even they knew someone who died on Bromhead. Hansen lost his wife and several of his youngest children there, and the only reason he hasn’t launched an all-out war against the whole Taurian Concordat is because Duke Hasek is keeping all JumpShips away from the Roughriders’ grasp. The Lancers and the TDF garrison on Lindsay weren’t just shattered; they were crushed so badly they ceased to exist. We think maybe a combined battalion, both Lancers and garrison troops, made it off-planet.

Alek shook his head. My god, this is a nightmare.

A bad situation, Carter replied with a nod. On the plus side, you’re an outsider, without the baggage Sanders had. But Hansen is going to test your diplomatic skills, and you’re going to have to let some things slide.

Alek frowned. I can’t⁠—

Tell me, have you looked into what happened in the past when merc dependents were held hostage or killed?

Alek blinked, put off by the question. No.

I have, and the history is stark. In 2798, the Eridani Light Horse activated their escape clause in their contract with the Draconis Combine after they received word of the Kentares Massacre. Most of the unit managed to leave their base on Sendai, but the planetary governor took two battalions’ dependents hostage to keep them from leaving. Negotiations failed, and the dependents were executed on the governor’s orders. The two battalions whose dependents were murdered returned to Sendai and proceeded to destroy the government and the infrastructure to the point the planet never recovered, and disappeared off the star maps soon after. There were Combine forces in-system, but they stayed out of the fight, not wanting to get involved. No sanctions were ever brought against the Light Horse.

That is⁠—

"Another example is the civil war between Janos Marik and his brother, Anton. Wolf’s Dragoons were working for Anton at the time, but he made the mistake of taking a dozen or so Dragoons dependents in 3015, including Jamie Wolf’s younger brother. For some reason, those dependents were executed, and Wolf dropped his Dragoons onto New Delos and turned Anton’s estate into his funeral pyre.

"And in 3058, the Word of Blake held the dependents of the Twenty-First Centauri Lancers hostage so the Word could slip onto Terra